


i stay up late and i talk to the moon (and i can’t stop telling her all about you)

by manbun_zukka



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Coming Out, Established Relationship, Established Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Fluff, Hakoda (Avatar) is a Good Parent, Light Angst, M/M, Oneshot, Secret Relationship, but it’s already one of my favorite things that I’ve writtwn, i actually just wrote this in less than an hour, i love him so much, implied bisexual sokka, just a sprinkle of angst i promise, no I don’t wanna talk about it, sokka gushing over zuko for 1.5 k, this fic have me back pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28585002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manbun_zukka/pseuds/manbun_zukka
Summary: “I never thought I’d feel love like this, Yue,” he breathes after a moment. Hakoda’s chest aches for his son. “After- after Mom, and after you, for a while it was like the bottom just fell out from under my world. And he just makes everything right again.”Hakoda wants to find this boy that Sokka’s talking about, and he wants to hug him as tightly as possible. Whoever he is, he made Hakoda’s son happy again, and that makes him the perfect partner in Hakoda’s book.“It’s coming up on three years since we got together, y’know,” Sokka says suddenly. Hakoda chokes on his own spit.—-Or, the story of how Hakoda finds out that his son wants to marry the Firelord, via evesdropping on the moon.
Relationships: Implied Bato/Hakoda (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 75
Kudos: 588





	i stay up late and i talk to the moon (and i can’t stop telling her all about you)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my bro’s! This idea literally came to me in a vision, and I managed to get it out onto paper in less than an hour, so I figured I should just post it now and see what happens. Usually, I go for longer oneshots, but this one seemed to be happy with just over a thousand words. Side note, I’m posting this on my phone, so if the formatting is weird, please leave a comment so that I can fix it!  
> I hope you enjoy!  
> xx,  
> CJ

“Nobody ever told me how hard it is to be in love, Yue.”

Hakoda hears the familiar voice of his son coming from outside of the igloo, and he puts down his carving knife, and the stone that he was working away at. He’s got no idea who Sokka’s talking to, but that name-  _ Yue-  _ it sounds familiar.

“I mean, sure you hear about relationships that are all fighting and stuff,” Sokka goes on, “but no one ever talks about loving someone so much that it hurts.”

Hakoda raises an eyebrow. As far as he knows, the last person that Sokka had dated was Suki, but they broke up when they were seventeen, and that was three years ago now. Loving someone so much that it hurts? That was news to him.

“I thought I loved you,” Sokka says, a whisper. It almost sounds too private for Hakoda to be hearing, but now that he’s started listening he can’t stop. “I thought I loved Suki. But-  _ Agni,  _ Yue, if that was love, then what I feel for him is more than any word can describe.”

_ Him.  _ That’s news to Hakoda. Not bad news, not at all, he himself has been in love with a woman before, and  _ is  _ currently in love with a man, so he couldn’t care less about who Sokka loves, but his son has never mentioned anything about a man.

“He’s just- he makes me feel so alive,” Sokka breathes. Carefully, quietly, Hakoda stands up from where he’s been kneeling on the ground and walks very quietly out of the igloo and onto the tundra, where Sokka is sitting atop a snowbank, staring up at the-

_ Oh.  _ Yue was the princess of the North, the one who sacrificed herself for the moon spirit. The one that Sokka was in love with. If Hakoda’s being honest, he’s never asked Sokka about the siege of the North, which he’s starting to regret now, because it seems to him in that there’s so much about his son that he doesn’t know.

Sokka chuckles quietly to himself. “Spirits, if I went back in time and told my fifteen-year-old self that  _ this  _ is where I’d be when I was twenty, I wouldn’t’ve believed myself one bit. I mean, on my fifteenth birthday, Aang was still frozen. But then- I mean, on my  _ sixteenth  _ birthday, I was in Ba Sing Se with the Avatar, Katara, and a master earthbender, looking for a sky bison, so I doubt fifteen-year-old me would’ve believed where I’d be in a year.” He pauses, taking a deep breath.

“I mean, even after the war, I thought I’d go back home and start training to be Chief, and Katara would travel the world with Aang,” he goes on, hands twining together in his lap. Hakoda is watching the whole scene with bated breath despite himself, horribly curious to know Sokka’s view on the whole thing.

Sokka lets out another quiet laugh. “But look at me now, Yue. Rebuilding a country that’s not even my own. Ambassador to the Fire Nation and high ranking Advisor to the Firelord. Honorary member of the Kyoshi Warriors. My life is pretty fucking awesome.” Sokka stops talking for a moment, and takes in a deep breath.

“I never thought I’d feel love like this, Yue,” he breathes after a moment. Hakoda’s chest aches for his son. “After- after Mom, and after you, for a while it was like the bottom just fell out from under my world. And he just makes everything right again.”

Hakoda wants to find this boy that Sokka’s talking about, and he wants to hug him as tightly as possible. Whoever he is, he made Hakoda’s son happy again, and that makes him the perfect partner in Hakoda’s book.

“It’s coming up on three years since we got together, y’know,” Sokka says suddenly. Hakoda chokes on his own spit. 

Three years.  _ Three years?!  _ Sokka has been seeing someone for  _ three years,  _ and Hakoda doesn’t know about it? As much as it feels like a sting of betrayal towards Hakoda’s parenting skills, there’s also the promise of a great story lingering behind all of the secrets, and that’s what keeps Hakoda silent and still, blending in with the shadows.

“I’m thinking of proposing, but I don’t know how to do it.”

Breathing, Hakoda decides, is very underrated when it comes to listening as your son divulges his relationship to the moon. 

“I mean, I could make him a betrothal necklace like you guys do up North,” Sokka goes on, leaning back against his hands, “but I don’t know if he’d want a Fire Nation style proposal instead. Mai told me that most couples propose with a handmade courting gift, like a set of knives, or a ring that they forged, and I  _ could  _ do that, but then Ty Lee told me that it’s tradition for noble families to get engaged with a handmade headpiece that they wear in their topknots, and I could do that too, but don’t you think it might be a bit over the top?”

Hakoda holds his breath, almost expecting the moon to respond. She doesn’t, and she never will again, and it makes Hakoda mourn for a girl that he never knew, and a love that has long been lost.

He also files away bits and pieces of information that he’s gathering on this mystery-man. He’s Fire Nation. He’s a noble. So far, that narrows it down to a couple hundred people, and Hakoda doesn’t really like the looks of those statistics. He needs to stick around and get more information on this man, so that he can try to figure out who Sokka has been seeing all this time. Who Sokka is thinking of  _ marrying,  _ and Tui, Hakoda’s head hurts.

“I mean, we’ve talked about marriage before, and he told me that no matter what, I’ll get a custom headpiece from  _ him  _ as a wedding gift, because he doesn’t want me to have to wear his mother’s,” Sokka says, reaching up to fiddle with the ends of his wolftail. “And he already has to wear one because, like, tradition dictates that and shit, so I guess that rules headpiece out of the equation. And I feel like the handmade gift thing is just about the same as a betrothal necklace, so maybe I should just stick with that?”

Sokka sighs. “There are some moments when I wish more than usual that you were still here to answer my questions,” he whispers. Hakoda’s heart breaks, and a tear slips down his cheek, going unnoticed. “But I know you’re up there. I know you’re listening.” He gives a wet chuckle and lifts his hands to wipe at what Hakoda can only assume are tears, before placing his hands back down on the snow. “Agni, if Zuko were only here to watch this. Can’t you just imagine what he’d say?”

Hakoda can’t, but something about the way that Sokka says that makes him want to.

“I bet he’d say, ‘Sokka, stop overthinking. Sokka, it won’t matter how you propose,’” Sokka sniffles again. “ _ Agni,  _ I miss him. I think he’d like the betrothal necklace, don’t you?”

_ Zuko.  _ Zuko, as in the Firelord. Zuko, as in the man who Sokka has apparently been in love with since he was seventeen. Hakoda can’t hold back his little gasp, and it makes Sokka look back towards him, eyebrows drawn close.

“Who’s there?” he calls out, reaching behind him to grab his boomerang out of it’s holster. 

“It’s just me, son,” Hakoda says gruffly, stepping out of the shadows. He wipes the last of his tears off of his cheeks and sits down next to Sokka on the cold ground, his joints cracking in protest.

“H-how much of that did you hear?” Sokka asks quietly.

Hakoda hums. “Enough,” he says. Sokka lets out a shaky breath and curls his arms tight around himself, ducking his chin into his chest. “Sokka,” Hakoda breathes, moving to wrap his arms around his son. Sokka lets out a little sob, curling up tighter into Hakoda’s embrace. “Son, I will never begrudge you love. No matter if that love is for the moon, or for the Firelord. I will always love you, no matter what.”

They sit like that for a while, the silence comforting. After a few minutes, Sokka peeks up at Hakoda for the first time that night, blinking away the last of his tears. “Do you really mean that?” he asks, sounding horribly unsure.

“Of course I do,” Hakoda promises, hugging him tighter. “And, for the record,” he adds after a moment, “I think the betrothal necklace is a great idea.”

Sokka gives a wet chuckle, and the world rights itself again.

  
  


\---

  
  


In two years, when Hakoda stands in the Fire Nation and watches Zuko place a silver, crescent moon shaped hairpiece over Sokka’s wolftail, his betrothal necklace glinting in the silver moonlight and the golden glow that’s coming from the fire pits around them, he looks up at the sky and smiles, remembering that night.

“Thank you, Yue,” he whispers. “For everything.”

And maybe he’s just imagining it, but she seems to glow even brighter for a moment, as if sending down her approval. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I hope y’all liked this fic! If you did, please please please leave comments and kudos below, I will be forever grateful! Btw, if any of you are following ‘catch me the wind’ and new chapter should be up in about a week or so. My personal life has gone to shit these past few weeks, and I just haven’t had the motivation to write, but I promise I’m not giving up! This is just probably gonna be a fic that decides to take it’s dear sweet time.
> 
> xx,  
> CJ


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